Cracks are showing in quick fix solution to sixth form dilemma

After the first week of exams, Liz Lightfoot went to Queen's College to find out how the pupils fared

A FEW weeks ago the hall rang with the sound of a jazz concert. Now rows of single desks have taken over: exam time is here again and this year 17-year-olds must sit them as well.

The girls at the independent day school in central London had just finished a three-hour Spanish paper. "It was very hard," said Nina Derham. "There's a big leap from GCSE to AS-level." Those taking English and Classics were more confident, complaining that the papers were not very exciting.

AS-levels are very much a compromise solution from a Government wanting to broaden the sixth form's traditional three subjects but terrified of being accused of dumbing down the "gold standard" of A-level. So a year after sitting their GCSEs, those staying on into the sixth form are expected to sit exams in four or five AS-levels, worth half an A-level.

The plan is that they add another year of study to some of the subjects to translate them into three or four A-levels, with an AS-level under their belts from the first year. Sixth formers at Queen's College are taking four AS-levels this month. Almost all will be applying to university.

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Margaret Connell, the head teacher, has encouraged them to include a different subject, such as an arts with three sciences. She said: "What we have found is that those taking four similar subjects are finding it easier but not getting the breadth. Those who have chosen variety are finding it hard to study one subject in isolation."

She considered, but rejected the approach of the London Oratory School, where the Prime Minister's son is in the sixth form, and which appears to be the only state school to have resisted the change. Euan Blair and the other lower sixth formers are not sitting exams this year but will do three or four A-levels plus an AS-level next year.

Miss Connell said: "They are supposed to be broadening the sixth form experience. But I fear it is being narrowed because the workload for the exams leaves little time for the girls to be involved in music, sport or the Duke of Edinburgh award. Normally they would have had a week of work experience but that has had to go."

The sixth formers said they approved in theory of having an exam midway through the sixth form so they can not be so dependent on the "big bang" exams at the end. In practice, they are finding it tough to cover the ground and prepare for an exam in nine months, with nearly two of them taken out by school holidays.

Rebecca Griffin said: "It would be unfair if universities took notice of what you have done in seven months. It doesn't show what you can achieve over two years." Your view of the half-way exam depends on the subjects you are studying said Victoria Stachon.

She said: "You are obviously going to be much better at the end of two years in English and languages because you are building up your knowledge. In maths and sciences it is easier to cover part of the subject, be examined in it and then go on to the next."

There are too many exams, says Alice Raymond, who is taking AS-levels in Italian, computing, English literature and theatre studies and plans to take the first three on to full A-levels. "We had GCSEs last year, AS this year and A2 next year," she said. "It's very hard to do anything else."

Teachers have mixed feelings. Staff taking Government and politics, science and maths were critical of the haste with which the exam was introduced but were happy with the papers.

However, Peter Wilford, the head of Art, said AS-levels had narrowed the girls' experiences. "There isn't the time to build and develop new skills and techniques which leads to a lack of experimentation and a narrowing of experience," he said.

Sarah Harrison, head of Classics, said the paper on Homer had been dull. "There was not much opportunity to shine," she said. The "formulaic quality" of the papers was criticised by Eleanor Relle, head of English. The "tick the box" approach to the subject favoured the competent candidate who covered all the points, not the really distinguished one, she said.

The demanding timetable of pupils doing four or five AS-level subjects meant they could not do the extra reading to put literary texts in context. She feared that teachers would choose the "not-very-demanding texts" which would nevertheless satisfy the list of "assessment objectives" printed for the first time on the exam paper.

"Teachers will play safe, as the examiners themselves seem already to be doing," she said. "We are already reflecting that we may never teach Paradise Lost or Samson Agonistes or anything but the easiest Chaucer again. In other words, one size fits all."